A couple considered parental figures to many in the Lake Quinault area got to celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary with a lot of people who view them as family.
John and Delma Gilroy celebrated their anniversary on Saturday at Quinault Valley Chapel, the church where the couple has pastored since its construction in 1986.
The Gilroys both went to Bible college and graduated in 1956 before moving to the Lake Quinault area in 1964, where he worked in the logging industry.
The shake mills he once owned and operated are gone now, but those who worked and worshiped with John made their presence felt last Saturday at the chapel, filling the rows of the church as if it were a Sunday service.
John and Delma’s daughter, Toni Steinhauer, said John wasn’t even sure people would want to attend his anniversary celebration.
“Earlier this week my dad was like, ‘Nobody’s is going to come. I don’t know why you girls are doing this,’” she said. “I told him that a lot of people are going to come because he has touched so many lives. Back in the ’70s the hippies were coming through and he gave them jobs. There have been five or six of them that have come back and thanked him. He doesn’t realize how many lives he touched, but today I think he kind of got an idea.”
Delma Gilroy said she can’t take credit for all the positive things she and her husband are credited for, but she felt blessed to have an outpouring of support from the community on the anniversary of her nuptials.
“It feels great but undeserving. Really, you think, ‘I didn’t have anything to do with that. It just happened,’” she said. “We love people and the Lord has taken care of us and led us. We would never have been where we are unless we served the Lord.”
The centerpiece of the celebration was the collection of old family photos that were arranged in a slide show and projected on a screen in the back of the church.
The photos came from a collection of old pictures stored away in the Gilroy house and ranged from the late 1940s, when the couple first got married, to more recent photos of the extended family they built after living in the area for three generations.
For the Gilroys, family goes far beyond blood relation. Many who have met John and Delma joke that just meeting them can get someone included as part of the family.
That sentiment is shared by church member Hollie Nelson who has lived in the Lake Quinault area for most of her life. She considers the couple an important part of her life.
“I’ve lived in Quinault almost my entire life, and I can’t imagine this area without John and Delma. They’re family. Even though they’re not blood-related, they’re family,” she said. “I think I speak for so many different people that have met them. Once you meet John and Delma you become part of the Gilroy family.”
John and Delma’s work through the church has allowed them to reach out to many in the community, and Delma considers it something of a miracle John has been able to preach despite a speech impediment.
Delma joked that John’s speech issues made their first date a little awkward.
“It’s a miracle he’s able to preach because he had such a speech impediment. I couldn’t understand him the very first date we went on,” he said. “I was afraid to say yes and afraid to say no because I didn’t know what he was saying.”
The then-young couple also survived a first date that included a little deception from family members and horse back riding.
“Neither one of liked to ride horses. Her cousin was sweet on my brother so she said that Delma wanted to go horse back riding with me,” John Gilroy said. “And my cousin told Delma that I wanted to go horse back riding with her. So, our first date we went horse back riding on the same horse.”
John found success in the logging industry and ran up to three shake mills at a time when the industry was at its height in the region.
Quinault Valley Chapel pastor Gery West worked with John as a logger and as a pastor and noted that John’s demeanor is different from the average logger.
“John is a man of extreme integrity. I’ve been around loggers and I know how they are: John’s been a good logger, he owned a shake mill and I have never heard him swear,” he said. “I’ve been with that guy many hours of the day for many days and weeks at a time. He can get angry, but he never shows it against a person.”
Though his eyesight has made it difficult for him to pastor as much as he once did, Gilroy still stays involved in the church and the community.
As family and friends came up to pay their regards, John couldn’t help but give credit to Delma, the woman who has been so instrumental to his spiritual development.
“Through meeting her I became a Christian. She helped me serve the Lord,” he said.
Delma Gilroy, center, laughs with family friend Tyler Boys at her and John Gilroy’s 70-year anniversary at Lake Quinault Valley Chapel on Saturday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Delma Gilroy, left and John Gilroy, right, walk towards the front of the chapel to take a family photo with all their blood relatives in attendance at the couple’s 70-year anniversary Lake Quinault Valley Chapel on Saturday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Delma and John Gilroy pose for a picture with family at the couple’s 70-year anniversary Lake Quinault Valley Chapel on Saturday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
